In the past 10 years (2014–2023), cases in which women were elected or appointed as village heads accounted for only 8.43% (9,104 times).
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said on the 19th that a suo moto investigation of village head appointments in each administrative ri over 10 years tallied these results. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) launched this suo moto investigation after it recommended corrective action in a petition case, which found that in a village in North Jeolla, not only had no woman been elected village head in 60 years, but there was also no precedent of a female candidate being recommended.
According to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), from 2014 to 2023 there were 107,945 elections or appointments of village heads across 28,517 administrative ri, and men accounted for 90.61% (97,812 times). Even accounting for cases with unspecified gender, the share of women elected or appointed as village heads was below 10%.
By region, South Gyeongsang Province had the highest share of female village heads at 11.58%. In contrast, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province was 2.54%.
Regarding eligibility requirements for village heads, no provisions explicitly restricting a specific gender were found in basic local governments' local government ordinances and rules. However, some local governments granted the right to attend and vote at residents' meetings and the right to recommend candidates to the "head of household" or "one household representative."
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Committee for Correction of Discrimination noted that while these standards appear gender-neutral on their face, when combined with the traditional practice in rural and fishing communities of men holding head-of-household status as the household representative, they could limit women's voting rights and opportunities to participate in decision-making.
It also determined that when key village bodies such as the ri development committee and informal human networks are male-centered, women can face structural constraints from the very stage of accessing the village head election process.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) proposed that heads of basic local governments with eup or myeon abolish provisions in residents' meeting voting qualifications that structurally restrict the participation of female residents and revise the system so that anyone can participate regardless of gender.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also determined it is necessary to review, through village head councils and other channels, whether village association charters contain content unfavorable to a particular gender and revise them toward gender equality, and to consider measures to prevent membership of various committees from being skewed toward a particular gender.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also advised the Minister of the Interior and Safety to review local government ordinances and rules on the election and appointment of village heads, and to regularly review gender statistics for such elections and appointments.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) assessed that the Minister of the Interior and Safety, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Minister of Gender Equality and Family need to develop and disseminate standard templates for village association charters to address gender imbalance.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said, "Resolving gender imbalance at the basic administrative level is not a policy for a particular gender but a way to diversify and expand local agendas," adding, "We plan to continue monitoring so that gender representation can be substantively guaranteed in decision-making processes in the public institutional sector."